Is Gulshan Grover the new FTII chairman?

On October 31, Anupam Kher who took over as Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India from Gajendra Chauhan, resigned from the post after just one year in office citing ‘busy schedule’ and commitment to the international show, New Amsterdam, which would run into at least three seasons and require him to be stationed in the US for nearly nine months between 2018 and 2019 and a similar period over the next three years. He pointed out that it would not be fair to either the students or the management for him to hold a position of such responsibility and accountability without being actively involved in the operations. It’s been over a month since and his successor has yet to be appointed.

Now, Mirror has learnt that Gulshan Grover, popular as Bollywood’s ‘Bad Man’ after his performance in Subhash Ghai’s Ram Lakhan, has been approached for the prestigious chair. “Feelers have gone out to Gulshan Grover from a topranking person in the ministry to step into Anupam’s shoes,” informed a source close to the development, pointing out that in a career spanning almost four decades, Gulshan has acted in over 400 films, from Hindi and English to French, German and Nepali to name a few. He was also an acting teacher for almost a decade early in his career, training actors like Sanjay Dutt, Tina Munim, Kumar Gaurav, Vijetya Pandit and Sunny Deol.

The economics graduate from Delhi’s Sriram College of Commerce himself received training at Roshan Taneja’s acting school but has visited Pune-based FTII many times, as also other film institutes across the world where he has spoken on cinema.

“He was also among the first actors to attempt a crossover to Hollywood and world cinema while continuing to work in Hindi films,” points out the source.

Gulshan’s son Sanjay has also worked at the LA-based MGM Studio for almost 15 years and is currently collaborating with the producer of the Mortal Combat franchise, Lawrence Kasanoff, for a Hollywood action film featuring Tiger Shroff in the lead.

“FTII is looking for an industry veteran to mould the students and Gulshan with experience in different cinemas can give them a wider worldview and a new perspective,” adds the source.

When Mirror reached out to Gushan he was uncharacteristically abrupt, saying shortly, “I don’t wish to comment on this.”